Cargo-towing Highly enantioselective Electro-pumps: unconventional asymmetrIc Readout and transmission of chiral information

Introduction

Chirality is found throughout nature, but it occupies a special place in chemistry, perhaps for historical reasons, but mainly as a result of the beneficial properties of chiral molecules across a diverse range of areas, from medicine to materials science.

Project Aim

The global aim of CHEIR is to achieve, with unprecedented efficiency, the propagation of chiral information along different length scales, based on the synergy of well-chosen molecular ingredients and physicochemical engineering.

Artificial Systems

The artificial systems involved can be considered as models for the transmission of chiral information through space. Such an ambitious aim could be achieved by developing a cargo-towing electro-pump based on chiral conducting polymers for targeted drug-delivery applications.

Key Ingredients

The combination of four main ingredients makes these innovative miniaturized bipolar soft pumps perfect candidates for a multipurpose asymmetric detection:

1. Electric field (externally applied)
2. Magnetic field (externally applied)
3. Electrical conductivity (intrinsic features of the object)
4. Enantiodiscrimination capability (intrinsic features of the object)

Inherent Chirality

In such a scenario, inherent chirality can provide the breakthrough. It implies that chirality and key functional properties originate from the same structural element, endowing the selector with extraordinary chirality manifestations that can be propagated from the molecular level to the macroscopic one.

Recent Observations

Unprecedented recognition, in terms of energy differences, was recently observed, implementing inherently chiral materials as enantiopure electrode surfaces.

Applications in Electrochemistry

Recently, the attractive potentialities of these systems were also exploited in the field of bipolar electrochemistry and in the realm of autonomous swimmers, allowing for the correlation of the output signal with the concentration of the enantiomers present in solution.

Future Development

Such striking performance will prepare for the development of innovative systems with high impact in analytical, biological, and pharmaceutical fields, considering the project's interdisciplinarity.